1. Field of the Invention
The present Invention relates in general to stretching fabric and in particular to stretching screen printing fabric.
2. Background Information
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,991,677 by V. H. Barnes, U.S. Pat. No. 3,211,089 by Elmar Messerschmitt, U.S. Pat. No. 3,416,445 by T. H. Krueger, U.S. Pat. No. 2,903,967 by H. S. Levin, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,078,793 by D. Jaffa et al references are made to using fabric border strips to releaseably attach to frames with the object of tightly stretching fabric as used in screen printing. In none of these patents is there a discussion of the size and shape of the fabric and the exact positions of the border strips on the fabric. There are insufficient means in the screen devices of these patents to precisely position and lock the border strips on these frames. Thus, there is an imprecision regarding how much fabric material is within the area inside the border strips because the border strips may be set at imprecise distances apart and the distance the fabric is stretched may vary because there is no precise control of the stop positions of the border strips on the frames. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,274,934 by this author, a screen apparatus is described wherein the border strips are in precisely measured locations on fabric and the frame has fastening features in precisely measured and predetermined locations. Unlike the Barnes, Messerschmidtt, Krueger, Levin, and Jaffa inventions in which the fabric is stretched an indefinite distance, this invention has as an object, the stretching of the fabric to a predetermined distance so as to attain a predetermined tension in the fabric. But because screen fabric, especially very finely woven fabric of silk, polyester, or nylon, has almost no rigidity, it is very difficult to position the fabric accurately so as to consistently place an equal amount of fabric within the area bounded by the border strips when attaching the border strips to the fabric. Thus, there is a problem of making bordered fabric with a high degree of precision regarding the location of the border strips on the fabric. An object of this invention is to describe a method to overcome this problem.
Pneumatic, mechanical, and other stretchers are well known by persons skilled in the art of stretching screen fabric. It is not known, however, how to use these stretchers in a method of attaching border strips to fabric to attain a highly accurate placement of the border strips on coordinates of the fabric. An object of this invention is to describe such a method.